MZR Dojo Special Events

[Deca]

So I've been put in charge of coming up with ideas for themed race nights outside of our normal Dojo series and HFAY events. I've been tossing ideas back and forth with D and I'm pretty excited about what could be done here.


DRIFT
Obviously we're going to have some drift nights. As we found out at the last race, drifting works much better on the carpet than RCP with the kyosho drift tires. Much more controllable and easier to hold nice angles, when I went back and looked at some of the drift factory vids on youtube I noticed that they're running their Zs on carpet as well, so I think this is the way to go. We have all manner of cones and markers to work with for layouts. I'm sure we could all use practice sessions before deciding if we want to work out some sort of competitive series, so I guess let's just try and figure out when we want to meet up for this. Having a night dedicated solely to drifting will be nice because we'll have the entire area to work with, we can just use the 1/10 barriers and whatnot with our other obstacles.



THEME RACE
For themed races we were thinking of going by car type. Stuff like SuperGT, BTCC, Le Mans, Ferrari Challenge, Mini Cooper Cup, etc. I'm personally excited about the idea of using real world track designs. For a first race I was thinking of using the older 1980s Fuji layout, since it seems like it should be fairly easy to at least approximate with the RCP we have, and is a track I like quite a bit. My initial idea was a 2 hour race with teams, person(s) not driving would be allowed to fulfill pit duties, reset car, etc. If that idea proves unpopular then maybe a 1 hour race with normal rules? It's occurring to me as I type this that it may be better to do a lap based race than a timed one, if we want to actually try to simulate a SuperGT race. At any rate, what's most important is the track and the cars.

While multiple drivers may not be realistic for a particular series, it could allow people who may not own an eligible car to compete in a race they otherwise wouldn't be able to...though problems could arise if you happen to obliterate someone elses body or damage their chassis while driving their car



RALLY
Rally races are something else I'm definitely interested to see happen, complete with elevation, jumps (within reason) and surface changes. We could design several point to point stages for the night and do it up like a real rally, stagger starts and record times. We'd have to tear down and rebuild between stages, but if we planned it out we could probably streamline that process by designing the stages such that it doesn't have to be COMPLETELY disassembled. For point to points we could even have the cars drop off the end of the RCP layout down onto the carpet, and use tape/cones/markers etc to map out an even longer stage. If this works out as well as I think it could I'll definitely be investing in a rally ASC



AUTO-X + GYMKHANA
I think it would be pretty easy to add an autocross series alongside pretty much any of these events as well if anyone was interested in such a thing. John and I had been talking about trying to run some gymkhana as well, that would likely be done on a drift night. We have some real layouts that wouldn't be too hard to setup, we'll just have to see if we have the level of control necessary to make it fun/possible.


Like I said, I'm excited I'll be grabbing the Zround track designer tonight and seeing what I can do as far as putting together some real world tracks. Please let me know what you think of this, and offer any ideas you might have. Also let me know who would be available to attend an additional night or two each month.


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Edit (2.10.11): first track concept
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Fuji Speedway 1980

[rensuchan]

Thumbs up.

I think the team races would be fun, just be sure that you have a second driver that you wont mind if they wreck your car =P

Would these meets all take place in the same location? Would there be an entry fee as well?

[Deca]

Same location, almost certainly.

Entry fee...I guess that's up to D :X

[Raeus]

What kind of car would you need for these races?

Drift =AWD

Theme = New body for your car?

Rally = ? (Sounds fun)

Have no idea what AUTO-X + GYMKHANA is.

[Deca]

Drifting will definitely be AWD. It's apparently possible to drift the RWDs with a gyro, but with a car this size AWD is going to be much more fun if we're just focused on stage layouts and tandems

The theme races will try to stay true to the real cars, so as long as the drivetrain matches up with the bodies we're running it'll be OK. If we did a Mini Cup or any sort of Hot Hatch night I think it'd be cool to set up MA010s as FWDs

For rally it will depend on what kind of tires we choose to run. If we all use drift tires then AWD will be necessary (and I have a feeling that's the route we'll end up taking). If we don't, then I'd say just match drivetrain to the car. I do have a feeling Rally will end up being at least a primarily AWD series.

Autocross is where they set up a tight, technical course with a bunch of cones in a big open area (often a parking lot) and then take turns running through it to see who gets the best time. Gymkhana is similar but takes the whole thing to an extreme...well, see for yourself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hkOyVd8Uo0

[Raeus]

How come AWD cars are ugly?

[Deca]

Originally Posted by Raeus

How come AWD cars are ugly?

You mean real life AWD cars or the MA010 chassis?

There are plenty of nice looking AWD cars! What about the 3000gt and the R32-33-34 Skyline? The 22b Impreza is way sexy and the Evo 3 and 4 both look nice.

[Raeus]

The races do sound like a lot of fun.

[YoYo-Pete]

I'm totally geeked about this...

I'm really looking forward to some drift and gymkhana events... Rally races should be fun too. Cool concept on how we can run them.

I got a 12 pack of cones and was thinking that next event I'll bring them and we can lay out a course on the carpet and get some sweet drifting going on.

I think it will be so awesome, I wont even realize my pants are wrong.

[MRDAVT]

So, when is the next event?

I've just assembled Mini Cooper AWD, it looks cute.

[YoYo-Pete]

http://mini-zracer.com/forums/showthread.php?p=405404

Saturday Night 2/12 and Friday Night 2/18.... (Times to be confirmed)

[mini-z]

Originally Posted by Deca

DRIFT
...Having a night dedicated solely to drifting will be nice because we'll have the entire area to work with, we can just use the 1/10 barriers and whatnot with our other obstacles.

So setup s/b a doddle compared to laying out the RCP! Awesome!

Originally Posted by Deca

THEME RACE
While multiple drivers may not be realistic for a particular series, it could allow people who may not own an eligible car to compete in a race they otherwise wouldn't be able to...though problems could arise if you happen to obliterate someone elses body or damage their chassis while driving their car

Really excellent call bringing teams into this - since not everyone has every chassis etc. - and I do like the idea of a fixed lap race; we've also talked about doing e.g. night stages w/ required use of lights (either pit to swap on a body w/ them installed or for the EE nerds maybe even set up remote switch-on!), and for example simulated rain via absurdly hard tires etc. for other events - could potentially incorporate some of these ideas too...? I got my little 808 cam working at last so w/b cool to capture some on-board footage from these races too!

Originally Posted by Deca

RALLY
Rally races are something else I'm definitely interested to see happen, complete with elevation, jumps (within reason) and surface changes.

Note that we do have Off Road RCP and an RCP Tracks Jump Kit that w/b great for this too...

Originally Posted by Deca

AUTO-X + GYMKHANA
I think it would be pretty easy to add an autocross series alongside pretty much any of these events as well if anyone was interested in such a thing.

Only trick here w/b timing - need to either make it loop back to cross the line - or I'm sure we could come up w/ a simple alternate timing system... ?

[mini-z]

Originally Posted by Deca

Same location, almost certainly.

Entry fee...I guess that's up to D :X

Yeah same deal on both I'd think.

[mini-z]

Originally Posted by YoYo-Pete

I think it will be so awesome, I wont even realize my pants are wrong.

I think it will be so awesome that your pants will definitely be wrong by the end...! This could quickly eclipse Chuck's random "1/9th" thing as the single best random thing to be said on the driver stand of all time...

[Deca]

OK so it looks like we need DATES. What works for you guys, who's interested in coming. Next two weekends are races so unless people want to meet up on a week night it probably couldn't start until after then.

I have no problem setting something up on a weeknight if people are free, and could potentially do a race and special event in a single weekend (though I wouldn't want to make a habit of that, and I'm guessing most people probably wouldn't be interested)

Our first event should probably just be a drift night if we do it in the near future, John and I have been anxious to get some proper drifting in (basement isn't really cutting it) and I know a couple others want to get into it as well. I can put together our Fuji Classic for sometime between the 18th and end of February

So yeah please post availability and interest if you're reading this